In the News

March 16, 2012 — We've compiled some of the most thought-provoking commentaries from around the Web. Catch up on the conversation with bloggers from Care2, Slate and more.

STATE NEWS: "55% of U.S. Females Aged 15-44 Now Live in Antiabortion States," Judy Molland, Care2: A recent report from the Guttmacher Institute found that 55% of reproductive-age women in the U.S. in 2011 lived in a state considered "hostile" to abortion rights, up from 31% in 2000. The report shows that while states on the west coast and in the Northeast generally remain supportive of abortion rights, "in the middle of the country, a number of states have moved from being middle-ground states in 2000 to hostile in 2011," Molland writes (Molland, Care2, 3/15).

'DOONESBURY': "'You're a Good Friend to the Ladies, Dad,'" Emily Bazelon, Slate's "Double X": Bazelon recently interviewed "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau about the reaction to a series in the comic strip that satirizes a Texas ultrasound law. Trudeau said that such laws represent a "systematic dismantling of reproductive rights," adding that as "a father and a husband," he saw the issue as "about the health and rights of people [he] love[s]" (Bazelon, "Double X," Slate, 3/15).

CONTRACEPTION: "Beyond the Politics and Pandering: Birth Control in Your Own Words," LoriAdelman, Feministing: When asked to comment on their personal experiences with birth control, Feministing readers said that affordability is a top concern. Many expressed support for Planned Parenthood and noted that birth "isn't 'up for debate' in [their] lives," Adelman writes. Readers "created a picture of real women's experience with birth control, and that picture transcends the current political discourse and gets at some of the lived realities that relate to this issue," she adds (Adelman, Feministing, 3/15).

HIV/AIDS: "What Innovations are Helping HIV+ Women in the Dominican Republic?" Mandy Van Deven, RH Reality Check: "While awareness of HIV/AIDS has increased in the Dominican Republic in recent years, tackling the disease remains a daunting challenge," Van Deven writes, noting that a United Nations study released this week found that 60% of Dominicans who are HIV-positive are women. PROFAMILIA-Dominican Republic -- part of the International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region -- has integrated HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and testing into its reproductive health services in the region, but "more effort is needed to end discrimination and stigma within the wider Dominican society," Van Deven states (Van Deven, RH Reality Check, 3/13).

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT: "The Struggle To End Violence Against Women Encounters a Road Block," Nancy Kaufman, Against Women Act "because it explicitly strengthens protections for those experiencing violence at the hands of a same-sex partner, as well as for immigrants and Native American women." She adds, "In the highly charged atmosphere of today's Congress, it seems that nothing -- not even support for victims of crime -- is safe from controversy, and if the controversy involves women's rights, the rhetoric of opponents escalates" (Kaufman, Huffington Post blogs, 3/15).

RUSH LIMBAUGH: "How We're All Paying for Rush Limbaugh To Take Viagra (And Why it Costs a lot More Than Contraception)," June Carbone, Huffington Post blogs: Carbone writes that Limbaugh needs "to admit the taxpayer role in paying for his [Viagra] pills," adding that the current health care system "is a massive subsidy from the uninsured to the insured." She continues that "not only do taxpayers subsidize Rush's Viagra along with a host of other medical treatments, but the existence of health care plans that more heavily subsidize the wealthy and the employed increases the odds that less-subsidized medical treatments will be less effective or more expensive." Carbone points out that "we would not pay a dime for Georgetown's proprietary health insurance program to extend its health care coverage to offer the full range of preventative services to Sandra Fluke and her classmates" (Carbone, Huffington Post blogs, 3/15).

Video Round Up

N.C. Gov. To Break Campaign Promise on Abortion Bills

AP/ABC News 11's Ed Crump discusses how North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) will break his campaign pledge to not sign any abortion restrictions if he signs a 72-hour mandatory delay bill into law. Watch the video

Datapoints

See where states rank on reproductive rights across the U.S. Plus, find out how states are imposing more restrictions on and limiting women's access to abortion. Read more

At A Glance

"Not since before Roe v. Wade has a law or court decision had the potential to devastate access to reproductive health care on such a sweeping scale."

— Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, on a ruling from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld major portions of a Texas antiabortion-rights law. Read more